Our schools should be less like Singapore and more like Silicon Valley | Zoe Williams

We are on the brink of a crisis in teacher numbers . Apparently it’s harder to recruit when the country comes out of recession, since the profession loses its risk-takers. It doesn’t help one bit when the population insists on continuing to produce more children. Related: Shortage of teachers set to spark new schools crisis Yet those explanations are flimsy: the recession line is rather speculative, and relies on a conception of teaching as a cosy, stable, low-risk job for losers. This is a relatively recent caricature of the job, which was once more accurately understood as something people did if they cared about the future, other people’s children and the life of the mind. The baby boom is real, yet doesn’t explain why recruitment continues to fall – according to new figures, numbers starting training courses are 14% down on 2010 – and turnover continues to rise. There ...